Johns Hopkins Univ. Applauded for Supporting Muslim Students
A new lock on their prayer room and halal food options on campus topped the list of the demands of Muslim students at the Johns Hopkins’ University for months.
“We were told things were being worked on, but it was hard to figure out what was being done,” said Mazin Elshareif, a junior majoring in neuroscience who serves as the Muslim Students Association’s vice president, The Baltimore Banner reported.
“We felt out of the loop and wondered if our concerns weren’t being taken seriously because we are students,” added Elshareif, whose group has about 50 active members.
The lack of a lock on the university’s prayer room door became an issue earlier this year when non-Muslim students entered the space and disrupted students who were praying.
Halal food isn’t widely available on campus, even though kosher food for Jewish students is.
Seeing little progress for several months, the group approached the Maryland office of the Council on American Islamic Relations to seek help.
Long-Awaited Solution
Zainab Chaudry, the council’s Maryland director, helped connect the students with Charles Lu, Hopkins’ associate dean of diversity and inclusion.
Lu pledged to replace the prayer room’s door, expand halal food options on campus and include Muslim students in the school’s search for the new chaplain.
“These steps reflect that the university is prioritizing its student body’s needs,” Chaudry said in a statement.
Lu wrote an email saying he was grateful for the chance to meet with members of the association and reaffirm the university’s support for Muslim students.
“Johns Hopkins University Muslim Association student advocacy on these matters helps to ensure that each member of our community knows with certainty that they belong at Johns Hopkins,” Lu said.
The Johns Hopkins MSA is a student faith group created with the intention of fostering Muslim students’ connection with one another and within the wider Hopkins, Baltimore and Maryland community.
The group strives to enrich the spiritual and social lives of students, staff, postdocs, and medical residents at Johns Hopkins University.
SOURCE: https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/n-america/johns-hopkins-univ-applauded-for-supporting-muslim-students/